Everything you need to know to get the most out of Spikes

Spikes Asia 2016, taking place 21 to 23 September in Singapore, has a solid lineup of speakers, special sessions, competitions and parties that will keep you on your toes. 

Speakers to watch for

Headliners (clockwise from top-left): Tatsuo Nomura; Ashleigh Axios; Alan Bachelli; Anna Bishop Rehrig; Kurt Hugo Schneider; Tamara Ingram

Tatsuo Nomura, game director of Pokémon Go, Niantic Labs

Tatsuo Nomura is part of the creative team behind the Pokémon Go craze that has stormed the world. He started his professional career as a software engineer in the Google Maps team working on the ambitious mission of digitising the world. He was part of the team that worked on an April Fool’s Day prank for Google known as Google Maps Pokémon Challenge. After the success of this Pokémon Challenge, he joined Niantic Labs, which later spun out from Google and became Niantic Inc, to manage the Pokémon Go project.

Ashleigh Axios, former creative director, digital strategist, The White House

Axios is an international speaker, strategic creative and an advocate for design. She is a national board member for AIGA, the professional association for design and has served as the creative director and digital strategist at the White House, where she led design from within the Office of Digital Strategy. Axios is also the president emeritus of AIGA Washington DC, where she formed and leads DotGovDesign, an initiative connecting and empowering government designers, and the annual DotGovDesign Conference. She has also worked as the manager of online editorial and engagement for the National Wildlife Federation. 

Alan Bacchelli, head of production, Pixelcase

Alan Bacchelli is one of the most cultured and experienced film producer-directors now working in Australia. Receiving film training at New York University, Bacchelli spent his formative scriptwriting years under the mentorship of Luciano Vincenzoni (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) and garnered awards for his productions. His experience in music and live events has seen him produce Italian music’s icons including Patti Pravo in concert with Luciano Pavarotti as well as hip-hop artists in Paris and New York. In 2012 he co-produced a live concert event at Crown Theatre featuring Oscar-winning maestro Ennio Morricone (The Mission) for the Perth International Arts Festival. Bacchelli is also an international lecturer on digital filmmaking.

Tamara Ingram, CEO, J. Walter Thompson

In March 2016, Tamara Ingram was named CEO of J. Walter Thompson. Ingram was previously WPP’s chief client team officer, overseeing 45 global account teams, representing a third of the group’s revenues. In her Spikes session, Ingram will delve the hotly debated issue of diversity. Armed with greater awareness that this issue is one that needs promoting in the industry,  Ingram and other global and regional heads will discuss in a session led by Campaign’s brand director, Atifa Silk, the active role leaders play in changing today’s reality.

Anna Bishop Rehrig, head of emerging markets, Facebook

Rehrig leads marketing communications for Facebook’s emerging markets and cross-border ads products. She launches and scales Facebook solutions built specifically for the needs of business owners across Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East. Before coming to Facebook in April 2014 she spent seven years in product marketing at Google including two years based out of Google’s Sub-Saharan Africa headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. 

Kurt Hugo Schneider, YouTuber

Kurt Hugo Schneider is a composer, music producer and director who has amassed over 7.2 million subscribers and over 1.7 billion views on his YouTube channel. Schneider will share how his creative approach to music production, branded entertainment and filmmaking has helped him become one of the biggest stars on YouTube.

What's new?

• Guinness World Records: There will be two record attempts at Spikes Asia this year. The first takes place during the Guinness session on September 22 at the Inspiration Stage, where there will be an attempt to achieve the record for the most face-swapped photographs taken simultaneously through a mobile app within a 10-second time frame. There will also be an effort to achieve the record of the most number of people contributing to a colour-by-numbers image of a Merlion on the back of the welcome wall.  
• YouTube Creative Hack: The video-sharing platform is challenging teams to create compelling mini-campaigns against the clock, including six-second bumper ads, its newest ad format. At the end of the day, each team will present its work in five minutes in front of a panel of expert judges, who will select the top three teams. Each team will then have to create a campaign overnight. Delegates at Spikes can watch the finalists and vote for the winning team. The winning team will get an exclusive invitation to the largest YouTube event in the region.
• Practical Programmatic Certification: MediaMath is holding this three-part course for media agencies, creatives and brands, aiming to take them beyond the buzzwords and help develop a strong programmatic foundation.